Serena fluent in French and clay

PARIS — Serena Williams was wrapping up her pre-French Open news conference when someone seated in the front row wanted to know whether she would take one question in the local language.

The tournament’s defending champion gave the OK. The reporter proceeded to put forth a pair of queries, and Williams arched her eyebrows and kiddingly chastised him — in French, of course — for asking two. She went on to answer both, earning a thumb’s up from the media member.

A year ago, Williams won over the fickle Roland Garros crowd by doing on-court interviews in French en route to the title, and the American — who has an apartment in Paris and is coached by a Frenchman — is clearly prepared to do more of the same this time around. What’s just as impressive is her comfort level playing on the Grand Slam tournament’s slow, red clay these days.

Heading into her first-round match today against 138th-ranked Alize Lim, a wild-card entry from France who is making her Grand Slam singles debut, the No. 1-ranked Williams is 53-2 (a .964 winning percentage) with eight titles since 2012 on the surface known around here as “terre battue.” Before that, Williams was 86-29 (.748) with three titles on clay for her career.

Williams is not entirely sure how to explain that surge, saying she didn’t alter her game.

“I don’t know what clicked or didn’t click,” she said. “I have the capability of playing on clay, so I don’t know why I wasn’t more consistent on clay before.”

Other top players in action on Day 1 include 17-time major champion Roger Federer against Lukas Lacko, No. 6 Tomas Berdych against Peter Polansky, and No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska against Zhang Shuai.